UN3880: Listening: An Ethnography of Sound | J. Pemberton

Anthropology
Undergraduate Seminar
Tu 2:10-4PM

We explore the possibilities of an ethnography of sound through a range of listening encounters: in resonant urban soundscapes of the city and in natural soundscapes of acoustic ecology; from audible pasts and echoes of the present; through repetitive listening in the age of electronic reproduction, and mindful listening that retraces an uncanniness inherent in sound. Silence, noise, voice, chambers, reverberation, sound in its myriad manifestations and transmissions.  From the captured souls of Edison’s phonography, to everyday acoustical adventures, the course turns away from the screen and dominant epistemologies of the visual for an extended moment, and does so in pursuit of sonorous objects.  How is it that sound so moves us as we move within its world, and who or what then might the listening subject be?

Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links. 

Please note: The Center does not administer the courses listed below and is not responsible for any changes in the content. For more information, please check the course directory or reach out directly to the instructor.